Forum: General

Guysmiley wrote:

So Stbygain, to clarify in my mind, the hook is intended to engage the cable at the departure threshold for brake failures, and a procedure for a gear-up landing is to aim for arrival threshold?

Yes, in the vast majority of F-16 cable engagements, it has been a departure end arrestment from either a landing with limited braking potential, or an aborted takeoff, usually the former. The approach end arrestment is a checklist directed procedure for some, but not all, landing gear malfunctions. In general, if there is an unstable landing configuration, or concern that landing gear may collapse on touchdown, the approach end arrestment is recommended by the checklist.

I personally do not know of any pilot who has taken an approach end cable although I do know of it happening. I know plenty of pilots who have taken the departure end cable.

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I know the A-37 (an extreme variant of the T-37) could have used a hook. The brakes in that thing were not very good, especially if you were heavy. You really didn't need a hook on an A-10, the gear were huge and the brakes were big and had redundancies, at least that was the thought. Though I do remember a couple of times back in the 80s when the guys up at SYR had to pull them out of the mud at the end of the overrun.

Hey Kilo11: I dare you to go up to a Hawg driver and tell him he's not a fighter pilot! I can recommend a good plastic surgeon that will set your nose so it won't look too bad.

Back in the mid 90s the old man ran into a flock of birds on a formation take-off (he was the number 1 guy). He aborted and caught the cable, as all he could see was bird mess on the canopy. The other guy punched the throttle and came back around. Luckily, neither airplane had ingested any fowl into their intake, but it did do a mess to the undercarriage of the number 2 guy.

STBYGAIN wrote:

Timing matters not, other than dropping the hook too late, as was causal in at least one F-16 mishap.

Thanks STBYGAIN, its always nice to have insight from the drivers too Smile

As for my statement about 'timing' dropping the hook; you touched on one half of what I was after (i.e. dropping too late), but to the best of my understanding it is also considered bad form to drop the hook, say right after touchdown, when you're taking the departure end cables. This is because the hook is held down with a good deal of force, and there is a *small* risk to grinding the lower edge of the hook sufficiently that it may not safely hold the cable. I can say that because we had one do it; thankfully it didn't slip off till he was almost fully decelerated, and he was slow enough that braking stopped him at that point (he landed with 'mushy' brakes and took the cable to be safe).

The chats I've had with our guys who've taken the cable say they usually try to drop the hook 2-5 seconds before engagement, and yes, is makes a spectacular show. Saw an F-4 take the barrier at Suwan, too- that was a light show!

As an employee of the company that makes the product you are talking about (the arrestment systems). Not only do the pendant tape systems you are talking about stop the aircraft, but also there are Net Systems at the end of some of the runways. Also on runways that have commercial use, such as major airports around the world we also have systems that retract into the runway so they can be run over by large aircraft and no damage to the system in any way. I will gladly answer any questions on this subject if you have any.

Last tidbit -
Yes, primarily designed for emergency stops, it is used mostly for a/c holdback.

The F-16 tailhook is spring loaded 'down', but has pneumatic pressure on a cylinder to hold it down and prevent 'bounce'. Bleed the pressure (put hook handle 'up') and wrestle it up and flip the holding arm.

USN aircraft (i.e F/A-1 Cool

have a hydraullically lowered and raised tailhoook.

Once at Nellis, we had a "heavy" blk 50 abort a takeoff after getting an engine mfl - caught the departure barrier. He had actually lifted from the runway before chopping the throttle and setting back down. 2ea 370's and 6x500lbs cement. Hook stopped the jet cold, but almost ripped out of the frame.

Took 2 days to to get the parts in and replace everything that was damaged. I for one was impressed that it stopped the jet considering how fast he was going.

Others here might recall - it was a SW Red Tail about 1996??? Air Warrior

Davis

Forum: General

F-16 arrestor hook